On March 9 I filed a lawsuit against the Marin County Board of Supervisors, County Counsel Steven Woodside and County Administrator Matthew Hymel contesting how they handled the 2014-15 grand jury report on pensions.
In my suit I alleged that all but Kate Sears had a financial interest in the outcome of their deliberations and should have recused themselves. I alleged that the legal opinion secured by the county was not, as stated by Mr. Hymel, an “objective legal analysis.”
Last, I alleged that the board had been negligent in ignoring a legal memo prepared on behalf of CSPP that contested virtually every point in the county-secured memo.
Perhaps I would have won my suit. Perhaps not. Unfortunately, we will never find out.
Around April 19, the county signed a contract for up to $50,000 to defend against the case. On April 25, the county’s lawyer responded to my complaint. In its response the county sought, among other things, that I be forced to pay the county’s attorneys’ fees and all court costs.
Unwilling to put my family at such financial risk, on May 4 I withdrew my suit.
Allow me to deconstruct this.
The county has the virtually unlimited resources of the Marin taxpayer at its disposal to defend its case. I, on the other hand, was representing myself because I could not afford an attorney.
Any liability would have fallen solely on me, and the county knew this.
The supervisors had no personal risk of paying attorneys’ fees, no risk of personal liability at all. If I had won and been awarded fees and costs, the county would have paid them on behalf of the supervisors, counsel and CAO.
Yet the county thought nothing of putting a taxpayer at such risk.
It was: heads, I win; tails, you lose.
The county pursued a scorched-earth policy by threatening me, a taxpayer, with great financial harm rather than let the case go forward to be decided on its merits.
In a nutshell, my own tax money was being used to hire an attorney to threaten taking even more money from me rather than address the county’s failures to follow the law; failures that were conceded by its own attorney.
This is abuse of power at its most basic. It undermines the belief that our elected officials have the best interests of the citizens at heart.
A number of people pledged financial support. They know who they are and I thank them. But it was not enough to either hire an attorney or protect myself. They are all released from their pledges.
Where does this leave the cause of pension reform in Marin County?
As William Henley said in his great poem, “Invictus,” “My head is bloody, but unbowed.”
And I am a few hundred dollars poorer. So be it. I knew the risk when I began.
I will try to bring another suit. This time, not against the self-serving machinations of the board, but a direct assault on the violations of Government Code section 7507 cited in the grand jury report.
I have the right attorney. I am talking to funders. It is only a matter of time.
What can the citizens of Marin do in the meantime? Throw the bums out.
Vote. Pension reform in Marin will only happen through courts or through the board. I will work on one if you will work on the other.
David C. Brown of MIll Valley is a member of the Citizens for Sustainable Pension Plans, a Marin public pension reform group.
